NEW ORLEANS — A maintenance worker at a New Orleans jail has been detained and is under a $1.1 million bond after confessing to turning off water to a toilet that concealed a hole in a cell wall, facilitating the escape of 10 inmates, marking one of the most significant jailbreaks in modern U.S. history.

Early Friday, the prisoners executed a bold escape by forcing open a faulty cell door, removing the toilet, and slipping through the gap. Graffiti on the wall included the phrase “To Easy LoL,” with an arrow directing to the opening.

On Tuesday evening state police confirmed that Corey Boyd, 19, became the fifth of the escapees to be apprehended.

Boyd is alleged to have killed a person who encountered him and others attempting to break into a car in April 2024, the Times-Picayune/ NOLA.com reported, reportedly striking the victim with a vehicle before someone else shot the individual. He faces charges of second-degree murder and has entered a plea of not guilty.

Officials have underscored multiple security lapses in the escape, including ineffective cell locks and the fact that the inmates got out when the lone guard monitoring them went to get food. The absence of the inmates, many charged with or convicted of violent offenses such as murder, was not reported to law enforcement for hours.

During a tense New Orleans City Council meeting on Tuesday, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, who oversees the jail, said she takes “full accountability.”

“There were procedural failures and missed notifications, but there were also intentional wrongdoings. This was a coordinated effort aided by individuals inside our own agency who made the choice to break the law,” Hutson said. “We are continuing to pursue everyone involved.”

Responding to a question from Councilmember Oliver Thomas, Hutson said she could not guarantee that inmates would not be left unattended again, noting that the jail is operating with 60% staffing capacity.

Hutson announced in the evening that she was pausing her reelection campaign, saying in a social media post that “restoring public trust and my commitment to security, accountability, and public safety must come before politics.”

Hutson has been sheriff since May 2022, and there are several challengers for the position in the election later this year.

Arrested staffer describes his involvement in the escape

The inmates escaped by removing a sink-toilet combination unit from a cell and then cutting steel bars behind the sink, Hutson said. After bending the bars, they slipped out. It’s unclear what they used to saw through the bars.

Authorities believe sheriff’s employees helped, and three have been suspended. On Tuesday authorities made their first staff arrest.

Maintenance worker Sterling Williams, 33, admitted that one of the escapees “advised him to turn the water off in the cell,” the Louisiana Attorney General’s office said in a statement.

Williams is charged with 10 counts of principal to simple escape and one count of malfeasance in office, with a $100,000 bond per charge.

Michael Kennedy, Williams’ appointed attorney, said he intends to plead not guilty.

Several of Williams’ family members did not respond to requests for comment.

Why did he allegedly help?

Williams said one of the escapees threatened to “shank” him if he did not turn off the water, according to an arrest affidavit. Another tried to take Williams’ phone and attempted to get him to bring a book with cash app information.

Attorney General Liz Murrill said Williams “made some bad decisions” and should have brought the threat and escape plan to someone’s attention.

Thomas said the sheriff’s office has a responsibility to protect employees and create a safe environment for reporting threats and other problems.

“We cannot allow the inmates to run the facilities. That can’t happen,” Thomas said. “We cannot allow them to threaten the men and women who work there.”

According to the affidavit, Williams “willfully and maliciously assisted with the escape” and without his help the escapees would have flooded the cell and drawn attention.

Murrill told reporters that no additional charges have been filed against other employees but the investigation continues and “there could be more arrests.”

Delays and ongoing security concerns

Officials have pointed to other security lapses before, during and after the jailbreak.

New Orleans officials grilled the sheriff’s office about why there was an hourslong delay in reporting the escape.

While a head count of inmates normally starts around 6:30 a.m. and takes less than an hour, sheriff’s officials said they were still verifying whether inmates had escaped more than two hours later, according to Jeworski “Jay” Mallett, the jail’s chief of corrections. City and state police did not find out until around 10:30 a.m., more than nine hours after they broke out of the facility.

Local police, who have “exponentially vaster” resources to track down the inmates, should have been notified immediately, Councilmember J.P. Morrell said.

“There were failures, failures in our personnel,” Hutson said.

Many state and local officials say blame rests squarely on Hutson.

Still on the lam

Five of the fugitives remain at large. Many of them were in jail awaiting trial or sentencing, including for murder charges.

“There are witnesses and victims, and all of those people are very, rightfully, unnerved by all of this,” Murrill said.

Christian Padilla, 30, who lives near where police were searching for Boyd, said he was relieved they caught him.

“That’s one less to worry about on the streets,” he said.

The sheriff’s office said more than 200 law enforcement personnel were part of the search for the fugitives. Up to $20,000 was offered for information leading to the capture of each one.

Antoine Massey, identified in the affidavit as the one who threatened to stab Williams, is one of those still on the run. According to the Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office, Massey also escaped from a jail in northeast Louisiana in 2019 and was recaptured the same day in a town in Texas, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) away.

“He was in the exercise yard and somehow cut part of the chain-link fence, enough to shimmy through the hole,” Morehouse Parish Sheriff Chief Deputy James Mardis said, adding that an accomplice was waiting with a car.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said she believes most of the escapees are within city limits. Officials have warned that anyone aiding them will face charges.

Meanwhile around 60 inmates at the jail have been transferred to more secure state prisons.

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Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.